LA Angels Go On Offensive, Overwhelm Giants 12-5

The Los Angeles Angels offense completely overwhelmed the underwhelming pitching of BOTH the San Francisco Giants' AND the Angels, as the Halos exploded for more runs than they have scored since June 11. Combined.

On a night when C.J. Wilson was not particularly sharp and MLB baseball's infield defense was dipped in as stinky a vat of suckage as could be feared by any High School coach, Mike Trout was...well...Troutsome!

Let us pause here for a moment: Trout went 4 for 4, scoring 4 runs and drawing a walk in the bottom of the 8th with his 5th Plate Appearance to reach, by my calculations, that final PA necessary to pop up on tomorrow morning's 2012 MLB American League stat leaderboard in the #2 slot for Batting Leaders, just ahead of Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like whenever Trout comes to bat, it's like pulling the handle on one of those jumbo jackpot slot machines in Vegas, and seeing it hit every single time?

Ok...back to the game. A 27 hit, 3 error, 17 run bonfire. Where was I? Oh yeah. Mark Trumbo...

Wait, Trumbo? The same Mark Trumbo who belted a bases clearing, 3-run, TRIPLE?!? (The second triple of 2012 and the third of his career.) Yeah, THAT Trumbo, somewhat surprising us all by flashing some speed to go with his 3 for 5 night with 5 RBI's. That particular Trumbo Triple brought in Trout, Hester and Pujols. Which brings us to Albert. Price Al had a fairly damned fine evening himself, he did. 2 for 3 with 2 walks, 4 runs batted in, and 2 runs scored himself and launched the barrage with a 3-run homer as the third batter of the Halos first inning.

And all that offense (as many runs as this squad has scored over the past week) was necessary. God Bless Barry Zito, who trashed the mound pretty good for the Giants tonight. Wilson surrendered 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings against only 3 strikeouts. But even that might have been Ok, if not a little better, had it not been for some seriously sloppy infield play by the Halos. It wasn't until LaTroy Hawkins showed up in the 7th that we got anything of merit from the infield, with a fine Pujols stab of a Pablo Sandoval line shot with runners on 2nd and 3rd and the Giants within 4. It should be mentioned that we did get a stellar running putout from Peter Bourjos to rob Ryan Theriot in the 3rd inning.

Meanwhile, overall, the Halos pitching made the Giants at-bats look like a pre-schooler's Easter Egg hunt, with base hits plopped all over the infield grass. As I wrote above Wilson gave up 10 of them, Hawkins gave up 1 in his 2/3's. Downs gave up another 2 in his 2/3's. Finally the Giants hit parade stopped. Frieri arrived with 1 out left in the 8th and finished up THAT inning, but the bottom of that same frame took so long Mike Scioscia trotted out David Carpenter 20 minutes later to seal the deal by cruising through whomever it was that was still awake in the visitor's lineup with a clean finale.

So, in the end, led by Trout, Trumbo and Pujols the Angels offense overcame TWO pitching staffs and a slightly offensive infield defense. They kept pace with the blistering hot Rangers. And all is well in Anaheim. Light that baby up!!